Thursday, March 14, 2013

vignettes from a world at war (3)

In 1942, in the middle months of WW2, US Rear Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt of Norfolk, Virginia and RCNVR Leading Seaman Gordon Douglas Harrison of Norwich, Ontario joined forces during Operation TORCH, one of the most significant amphibious operations to that date. "Some believed it to be the greatest amphibious gamble since Xerxes crossed the Hellespont in the fifth century B.C." (pg. 31, An Army At Dawn)

Rear Admiral Hewitt, at US President Roosevelt's order, would command the Atlantic Fleet's new Amphibious Force. Leading Seaman Harrison would ferry soldiers and all manner of war material to the shores of North Africa. The two men never met but shouldered their loads without question. More about Hewitt's goals and role follow:

'operation torch'

late that summer came

Roosevelt's decision to seize

North Africa in Operation TORCH.

Two great armadas would carry

more than 100,000 troops to

the invasion beaches.

One fleet would sail 2,800 miles

from Britain to Algeria,

with mostly British ships

ferrying mostly American soldiers.

The other fleet, designated

Task Force 34, was Hewitt's.

He was to sail 4,500 miles

to Morocco from Hampton Roads

and other U.S. ports

with more than 100 American ships

bearing 33,843 American soldiers.

In a message on October 13, General

Eisenhower, the TORCH commander,

had reduced the mission

to twenty-six words:

"The object of the operations

as a whole is to occupy

French Morocco and Algeria with

a view to the earliest possible

subsequent occupation of Tunisia."

The Allies' larger ambition in TORCH

had been spelled out by Roosevelt and Churchill:

"complete control of North Africa

from the Atlantic to the Red Sea."

(pg. 22, An Army At Dawn by R. Atkinson)

When LS Harrison put his shoulder to the wheel he had little or no knowledge of the above details. In fact, he only learned he was destined for North Africa once the British ship he had boarded in Scotland entered the Mediterranean Sea. But once his landing craft had been lowered from the Derwentdale and was freed from a sandbar, he got to work. Some of his notes follow:

'only snipers'

There was little or no resistance,

only snipers, and I kept

behind the bulldozer blade

when they opened up at us.

We were towed off eventually

and landed in another spot,

and once the bulldozer was unloaded

the shuttle service began.

For 'ship to shore' service

we were loaded with

five gallon jerry cans of gasoline.

I worked 92 hours straight

and I ate nothing except

some grapefruit juice I stole.

(pg. 25, "Dad, Well Done")

Dad tells the tale with a bit more detail (e.g., he wasn't alone behind the 'dozer blade) in another spot in his lengthy, informative notes (all made possible by the fact he knew how to duck). More to follow.